Kandista

Heippa!

Kirjoitan vielä oikeastikin kandistani jotain jossain vaiheessa, tässä on vain tutkielman loppulause. Tarkoituksena oli harjoitella englanniksi kääntämistä, toivotaan, että sain jotain kohtuullisen selvää aikaiseksi. Oikeakielisyyttä ei ole tarkastettu kellään, joten jos menee oikein se on ihan omaa ansiota ;) .
Tutkin työssäni siis Armenian uskonnollisesta historiasta kirjoittanutta Sebeosta.

Conclusions

Sebeos is interested mainly about three things in the religious environment: the works of katolikoi, the inner and outer politics of the church and other religions i.e. Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Islam. His style is straightforward and he tries to be neutral.  The part of Christianity Sebeos writes most is clearly the works of katolikoi. From that ground it is easy to establish that katolikos was an important figure in the spiritual life of the Armenians. In the text one can also see references to the secular power of katolikos and his connections to the princes. The closer we get to mid-600s the more Sebeos has to say about the katolikoi.

Otherwise, the description of Christianity can be divided in two parts. On one hand Sebeos discusses God´s intervention in battles, sieges and the like, on the other about relics. This shows us that the writer was religious and it is a good evidence that he was a priest. Sebeos tells examples which say a lot about the relationship between politics and religion and how this possibly affected to war making. Especially interesting are the relationships between nakharar* and church even in the time of peace. Sebeos also shows interest beyond his own Christian country and follows the events connected to the Holy Cross which no doubt were followed in all Christendom.

Sebeos represents Zoroastrianism by both conflict and coexistence. Conflict is the attempt to convert the good Christians but Sebeos ends up talking mostly about the greatness of martyrdom and how pious everybody were. In coexistence too Christian things become more eminent since the wife of king Khosrau is a Christian. Jewish communities were commonplace in the Armenian cities, so Sebeos mentions their phases when he deems it necessary. To Sebeos Arabs were a plague send by God. It is likely that bigger conflicts emerged only when Arabs had established their power and Sebeos died before that happened.

It could be said that Sebeos´ opinion about the religious affairs is slightly in contradiction with his examples. All in all he seems to think that the Armenian Church is internally very united although he shows that things were a bit different in real life. One has to note though that the contradiction is mostly political and not religious.

In the the end it can be concluded that Sebeos paints a diverse picture about religious events and conflicts not only in Armenia but also in the neighboring countries.

*nakharar meaning Armenian lords or princes

                                                           -Roona-